Labour MP implies 'UKIP & BNP in bed together'

UKIPSW · 31-05-2008, 12:27 AM

Quote:

The piece charting the rise of the British National party in Stoke-on-Trent (Labour's lost ground, G2, May 28) was timely and accurate. Here in neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme we suffer a similar level of insurgency. The xenophobic message is the same, but in our town the vote goes to a virulent local branch of the United Kingdom Independence party.

In 2004, when the BNP first came over the border from Stoke, local people sent them packing. This year voters in the same ward elected the local Ukip leader, a former Tory. The BNP and Ukip, which now has four seats in Newcastle, do not now stand against each other locally, from which the conclusion is obvious.

It is not that local people are rightwing or intolerant. Incidents of racial violence are isolated. As your article pointed out, the first independent elected mayor of Stoke was gay - as is his Labour successor and the current Conservative leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

What we are seeing is epidemic disaffection in our heartlands. Many this year voted for the candidate best placed to beat the Labour incumbent. The same happened in the byelection in Crewe.

Well-meaning government initiatives are only as good as the people, especially council officers, delivering them on the ground. "Targets" and "outputs" yield perverse results if it's all about quantity, not quality. And if you don't communicate well, taking local people along with you, the result is alienation. It's all very well taking the "right long-term decisions", but in the long term we are all dead - or in opposition.

In north Staffordshire, investment is going into education. But planners have allowed low-paid, low-skilled work to mushroom. So aspiration suffers and insecurity breeds. On skills, we need more radical intervention from government, like the positive action which took the Inland Revenue to Nottingham. We need the temporary and agency workers bill, which I first introduced last year, to tackle workplace insecurity, without resort to racism. We need to build more affordable housing for people who simply cannot afford to get on the ladder.

In short, we need a recognisably Labour agenda, so our supporters do not heed the siren calls of the BNP, Ukip or whichever local insurgency taps into our vote up and down the land.

Paul Farrelly MP
Lab, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Letters: Insurgency in Labour's heartlands | Politics | The Guardian

What's all this 'insurgency' nonsense.

Earthling · 31-05-2008, 12:29 AM

We're against the EU, they will try to turn the public against us as they can, either that or he is just plain ignorant and can't spot the many differences between UKIP and the BNP

Dissident Congress · 31-05-2008, 12:45 AM

No matter how hard they try, UKIP will NEVER convince the establishment they are anything other than BNP in suits.

Earthling · 31-05-2008, 12:53 AM

I disagree

Particularly when people latch onto the fact that not a single member of UKIP has been in the BNP yet there are many Labour and Conservative defects to UKIP

However it is down to UKIP to push forward our policies and prove to people that we are not racist and that we like Europe (just don't want to be in the Union)

michael mcgough · 31-05-2008, 09:10 AM

This desperate letter says more about his own party than anything else.A cry for help from someone who knows he'll lose his seat next time araound.

kernow · 31-05-2008, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michael mcgough

This desperate letter says more about his own party than anything else.A cry for help from someone who knows he'll lose his seat next time araound.

I look forward to seeing him and his ilk thrashed at the next GE.

Bob FM · 31-05-2008, 09:28 AM

Michael you are exactly right, and as for the adverse comments about UKIP members and the BNP, it is the easiest slur to throw but when proof is sought, because it is untrue, non is forthcoming neither are any apologises.

komerad · 31-05-2008, 09:57 AM

Ignore, just the desperate rantings of a person who realises he will have to find a proper job in 2010

, or possibly sooner.

Dissident Congress · 31-05-2008, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earthling

I disagree

Particularly when people latch onto the fact that not a single member of UKIP has been in the BNP yet there are many Labour and Conservative defects to UKIP

However it is down to UKIP to push forward our policies and prove to people that we are not racist and that we like Europe (just don't want to be in the Union)

The establishment not the people!

The establishment not the people!

The establishment not the people!

douglas denny · 31-05-2008, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dissident Congress

No matter how hard they try, UKIP will NEVER convince the establishment they are anything other than BNP in suits.

The establishment can get stuffed. Who cares what they think?
What is important is what the general population of voters think.

I am quite sure they, the electorate, are not in any way convinced UKIP is anything like the BNP. If they did think that, voting for UKIP would collapse. (Which is the purpose of the attacks trying to link UKIP with BNP).

The anti-UKIP forces (which actually is the current political 'establishment' ... i.e. the government; Conservatives; and NewLab in particular) have tried time and again to tar UKIP with the BNP brush. It doesn't work.

We have enough anti-racist and anti-BNP credentials now to fend off any stupid attack of that nature.

Also: in the GBP's (Great British Public) mind; UKIP is mainly tied to the anti-EU message only, which is our greatest problem: convincing them we have credible and useful alternative policies which are attractive to them, and which merits our forming a government, - as well as the policy of getting out of the EU.

Actually you and I know those things are linked - but they don't know that yet. Our mission is to get that message across.

DED.

31-05-2008, 12:29 AM	#2 (permalink)
Earthling Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cheshire Posts: 292 Party: UKIP	We're against the EU, they will try to turn the public against us as they can, either that or he is just plain ignorant and can't spot the many differences between UKIP and the BNP __________________ Earthling's Blog Don't let EU rule Britannia! Vote UKIP and say NO to Brussels Bureaucracy.

31-05-2008, 12:45 AM	#3 (permalink)
Dissident Congress Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 723	No matter how hard they try, UKIP will NEVER convince the establishment they are anything other than BNP in suits. __________________ Dissident Congress Promoting Populist Patriotism Our Nation - Our People - Our Heritage - Our Future

31-05-2008, 12:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
Earthling Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cheshire Posts: 292 Party: UKIP	I disagree Particularly when people latch onto the fact that not a single member of UKIP has been in the BNP yet there are many Labour and Conservative defects to UKIP However it is down to UKIP to push forward our policies and prove to people that we are not racist and that we like Europe (just don't want to be in the Union) __________________ Earthling's Blog Don't let EU rule Britannia! Vote UKIP and say NO to Brussels Bureaucracy.

31-05-2008, 09:28 AM	#7 (permalink)
Bob FM Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: South Marston Swindon Posts: 1,125	Totally Agree Michael you are exactly right, and as for the adverse comments about UKIP members and the BNP, it is the easiest slur to throw but when proof is sought, because it is untrue, non is forthcoming neither are any apologises.

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31-05-2008, 09:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
michael mcgough Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Essex Posts: 687	This desperate letter says more about his own party than anything else.A cry for help from someone who knows he'll lose his seat next time araound.

31-05-2008, 09:57 AM	#8 (permalink)
komerad Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Cardiff. S.Wales Posts: 584	Ignore, just the desperate rantings of a person who realises he will have to find a proper job in 2010 , or possibly sooner.